Work to repair dozens of cracked concrete piers along Edmonton’s beleaguered Valley Line Southeast LRT is nearly complete, clearing the way for final safety testing on the 13-kilometre line.

At a news conference Tuesday, TransEd CEO Ronald Joncas said 94 per cent of the structural repairs are done on the piers that support elevated sections of track.

“We are at the end of the repair process,” Joncas said.

“The final work includes concrete surface finishing and clean-up which does not impact the testing the of the train.

“In fact, you may see trains operating through the whole alignment, from 102nd Street all the way to Mill Woods, before the new year.”

Joncas provided no timeline for when the LRT will go into operation but said he remains confident it will be in service soon.

He said, however, that the ongoing testing can not be rushed and TransEd will not compromise on safety. 

“I want to give you an estimate. I will not give you an estimate today,” he told reporters. “You have to consider, at this time of the year, some of these tests will require a little bit more time and we have a third-party certification process.” 

The $1.8-billion public-private partnership between TransEd and the City of Edmonton is two years behind schedule.

The line, which will run between Mill Woods and downtown, was expected to be in service by December 2020 but construction has been delayed several times, most recently by the structural problems discovered this summer. 

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